Our judges from left to right
Kevin Morris, singer from The Messengers
Bill Murray from WSAZ news
Larry Strickler from Marshall University
Dave Ball , bass player for The 1937 Flood

After the awards we had an open jam session for members of
The Harmonica Club and contestants from the championship

Here's an editorial
that apperared in The Big Sandy News, written by Tim Preston, one of
the contestants.

08/03/2007 - I can't say I felt cheated during last weekend's West
Virginia Harmonica Championship. I didn't win and I didn't place, but I
got beat by some top-notch players and find no shame in that.

The best part was hearing so many different approaches to the same
little instrument. That becomes an important theme later in this column.

While not shamed by my performance, I did, however, mess up in a royal
manner with my strategy for the contest. As I've mentioned, I was
unsure what song to play to qualify for the "recognizable melody" part
of the competition. In classic "reporter" style I started looking for
the magical song with less than 24 hours remaining before the contest.
I went through dozens of possibilities, and landed between Stevie
Wonder's "What'd I Say?" and the classic "Orange Blossom Special"
(which I would've played with two harmonicas as taught by Johnny Cash
on his TV show in the 60s).

Instead, I decided to take a real gamble. I chose "Amazing Grace," as
my opener, offering it in the form of a chord melody instead of the
single-note style most people are familiar with. I started rehearsing
the song somewhere between Louisa and Huntington, and even found a
bittersweet lone-note for the "me" in the line ending with "wretch like
me."

My performance before the crowd and the judges, however, had little to
do with grace or anything remotely amazing. Making it worse, I think
three other harmonica players also chose "Amazing Grace" as their first
selection, and each of them played it far better than I did. One guy in
particular, who I believe may have won the big trophy and title, had us
all hanging on his every note. I honestly can't imagine anyone doing
the song any better on any instrument.

And, another contestant played "Orange Blossom Special," with two
harmonicas. I should've gone with the boogie magic of the Stevie Wonder
song.

My second strategic mistake was rejecting an offer from a local
guitarist who was willing to jump in and back me up at the last minute.
The guy was good and played behind a couple of the other contestants,
enhancing their performance considerably. Instead, I chose to play "Raw
Dog Riding the Rails," which is my title for anything I do solo without
rehearsal, just closing my eyes and waiting to see what comes out of
the old Hohner.

As part of that, I maintained the chord approach and included the
classic "train whistle" which is an essential part of any harmonica
player's bag of tricks. I then sent the "chugga-chugga" sound of the
engine's drivers into the microphone, hit the horn one more time and
promptly derailed that whole locomotive straight off a curve and a
thousand feet over an embankment into the river.

I'm not sure what happened ? I think I had a hiccup or maybe swallowed
a bug. Regardless, my momentum was lost and there wasn't much I could
do to redeem myself. The audience gave me a surprisingly enthusiastic
response and I was just glad to say I'd gotten through it.

A real treat for everyone there was the performance by the guy who
followed me, and ultimately claimed third place. He said his name was
simply "Skinny Boy," and he came to West Virginia by way of Japan.

Skinny Boy gave us a taste of blues, bluegrass and Tokyo, divided into
two fascinatingly different phases. Knowing he had beaten me before he
even left the stage, I bought him a hot dog and we watched the rest of
the competition together, cheering often for those who got our
attention with an added flourish or riff. I just heard the raw
recordings of it, apparently we were right beside a microphone because
you can clearly hear both of us saying things like "Ya!" when someone
slipped something extra good in there.

Another treat of the contest was a chance to share the stage with Eddie
"Blue" Dawson and Jim Rumbaugh (among others) on "Big Legged Woman"
during a jam session while the judges were adding up their scores. I
don't know Dawson, but can attest the man can play the daylights out of
his harp. In addition to having the most legit blues man's hat in the
crowd, Rumbaugh also showed he had considerable blues harp chops.

Huntington's harmonica crowd gets together at a coffee shop on Tuesday
evenings. After the championship, Rumbaugh sent me a message saying,
"I'm counting on you to bring in some more good 'ole boys from down in
Ky. I wanna hear some wailin'."

Odds are I'll never make it to Huntington on a Tuesday evening (one of
two press nights we face every week). But we should at least send Kenny
from Cornbread Orchestra down there to let them know what some of our
better local musicians are capable of doing.

We
had a good mix of playing styles. Everyone had something to
contribute in their presentation. Bill
Jones,contestant #1
played with a progressive jazz and blues mix that you rarely
get
to hear. Darrel Brown,Contestant #2, and
Kermit
Nance, #6, did a good display of straight harp playing and using the
tounge slapping technique. Paula Stewart, #3, put an
excellent
presentation. Tim Preston , #4 was the only one to use all chords for
both songs. Skinny Boy, contestant #5, showed
variety in
his notes. Making use of timing, rhythm, and rests to paint his melody,
and his body movements as he played were unforgettable. Brian Salters
displayed great emotion and a very commercial sound. Mark Cabell had
the sweetest tone and played a melodic jazz tune. Geoff
Riffe,
#9, played a show stopping version of Orange Blossom Special and showed
great range of notes, playing more high notes than the others, with a
crystal clarity that rang sweet and true.

The judges were fair and consistent, yet varied in their
opinions. I saw nothing that hinted at favoritism, but I did
see
differences in how they judge, which is to be expected. For
example, if we look at the results of one of the judges, the 3rd place
Skinny Boy would have been the 1st place winner, and Bill
Jones
and Mark Cabell would tie for 2nd and 3rd. The 1st and 2nd place
winners would not have placed. Also, as in the Ohio State
Championship, scores seem to run lower for the first performing
contestants and higher for the later performing. So
chance
of position in the competition seems to be a factor.